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I know from the statistics that many of the people who read this are in the USA. Apologies to everyone else, but I’d like to ask all my US readers to take a look at the minimalist petition on the White House e-petitions site asking the President to veto SOPA and PIPA when their future merged offspring finally reaches him. 46,000 people have already signed it so it has already passed the site threshold, but if you agree with it, please sign it and tell all your friends about it too. You may also want to take a look at the E-PARASITE petition – together these two petitions are head-and-shoulders above all the rest in the system.

I believe it is very important to disprove the assertion being made by the forces of 20th century monopoly that the only opponents of this bill are Google and its peers. Anyone who understands the Internet can see that the provisions in SOPA/PIPA are far too broad and over-reaching and place powerful new tools for market abuse into the hands of organisations that have already proved they can’t be trusted with such tools. Just as the DMCA has been used to prevent competition in the ink cartridge market for printers (and much, much worse), so SOPA will be used to stifle competition and consumer opposition even more.

There may be an appropriate law to help Hollywood and Nashville avoid the inevitable gravity of the meshed society (I personally doubt it), but if there is, this law is not it. Make sure your President knows that, even if Congress doesn’t understand the Internet, plenty of Americans do.

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All views expressed on this blog are those of Simon Phipps and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other entity, including current and former employers and clients. See my full disclosure of interests.